Great Moments in Notes Columns

Albert Pujols, for all his heroics this year, has one hit with a RISP and two outs (1 for 14, with 15 BB and 10 IBB), and as Joel Sherman of the New York Post (and SI.com) pointed out, Mets’ youngster Nick Evan passed Pujols with two in two days vs. Pujols’ Cardinals.

I sure hope this is offered as a complete refutation of the importance of two-out RISP stats as opposed to an attempted knock on Pujols. Because if it’s the latter, it’s like watching Superman fly around the world to reverse time and than criticizing him for stopping at 3:15 PM instead of 3:26.

Posnanski and Marchman and usually pretty good. Heyman makes me embarrassed that I’m getting an education at the same place he is. As far as reading studies on clutch, this is the man who once wrote “VORP? DORK!” as some kind of rebuttal of advanced stats.

I’ve noticed that most if not all SI’s baseball writers are pretty bad. I pretty much stopped even bothering checking SI after Tom Verducci’s suggestion that the Rays might be interested in Freddy Sanchez because of his DEFENSE! and because he is a grinder as a hitter.
Is there any SI writer who actually knows what he is talking about in terms of stats?

I keep forgetting that Posnanski writes for SI after reading his stuff online at his blog and the KC star.
I don’t recognize Marchman but if he’s the guy behind diamond digits then he’s pretty good too.
Does make one wonder when SI will start recognizing stats and hiring people who can understand some of the more important ones.